Archive for the 'KLZ Randy Corporon Show' Category

Pick a day on Denver talk radio, and you’ll find Muslims under attack in the most heartbreaking, insulting, and ignorant ways.

The audience is small but the bigotry is too real to ignore with Trump in the White House. More people need to know this is happening here, in Denver, our home, so we can be ready to help our Muslim neighbors if they come under even more serious attack or discrimination.

The latest example oozes from KLZ 560-AM, which describes itself as “dedicated to upholding this country’s Judeo-Christian roots” and “committed to serving God and country, upholding traditional American values such as freedom, justice, honesty, and respect.”

If you caught the station’s afternoon show, called Rush to Reason, this is what you heard:

John Rush @2 min 15 sec below: Those out there predicting that the Muslim faith–I don’t want to call it af faith because I don’t think it is–Those that believe in the Muslim world, telling you that there are a bunch of peace-loving Muslims running around that are waiting to shake your hand and help you out, I don’t think so…. Trust me, they are not going to stop until we stop them or they take the world over, one of the two. Those are the only two answers, folks.

There is nothing in between. There is none of this, living next door to one and thinking everything is going to work out great. It’s not how it’s going to happen, folks.

“In Islam, god in the Koran has 99 attributes, 99 names, and the two names that god uses all the time to define himself, and we use to define god, are compassion and mercy. So god’s justice reflects god’s compassion and mercy.”

The bigots on the radio are going to take a lot of work before they accept the fact that Islam is no different than any other religion. Meanwhile, we have to be ready in case Trump, John Rush, or anyone comes after the Muslims in our community. ProgressNow Colorado has set up a “rapid response” network to respond to Trump and his allies. Sign up here.

The morning after voter fraud charges were filed against KLZ 560-AM morning host Steve Curtis, there he was, on the air, interviewing William Gheen, who’s on a “mission” against illegal immigration.

But things changed during the day, as you know if you were one of the lucky people listening to KLZ’s afternoon show, where Dan Meurer announced the resignation of the former GOP state chair:

Dan Meurer: All over the news is our morning show host Steve Curtis. So Steve has been brought up on charges, as we all know. And Steve resigned this morning. And basically that’s all we are going to say about it. It’s all we really know. And as a friend of Steve’s I wish him the best of luck. Prayers are with him. And there we go.

It appears that Curtis resigned on his own volition, because Crawford Broadcasting was prepared to keep him on the air until he was found guilty, according to Fox 31 Denver:

Curtis’ bosses at Crawford Broadcasting in Dallas said Curtis is innocent until proven guilty and it has no intention of taking disciplinary action unless and until he’s convicted.

Crawford Broadcasting clearly should have suspended Curtis, pending the outcome of the legal proceedings, because the serious nature of the allegations stripped him of his credibility.

Strangely enough, a couple years ago, Crawford Broadcasting quickly suspended interviews with Tom Tancredo, after the former Congressman teamed up with Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman to try to oust GOP state chair Steve House. The temporary Tancredo-interview-ban led to the resignation of Randy Corporan, who hosted KLZ’s morning show prior to Curtis’ tenure there.

Crawford’s innocent-until-proven-guilty approach to Curtis was not used by Clear Channel, the owner of Denver’s KHOW 630-AM, when it immediately suspended host Peter Boyles after he reportedly grabbed the lanier of producer Greg Hollenbeck during a violent exchange. Boyles was immediately suspended and later fired.

The collapse of Trump is being taken especially hard by radio hosts who don’t like Hillary. Here, Dan Meurer, who’s heard on KLZ 560-AM’s afternoon drive show, says he’d rather have David Duke as president.

MEURER (in discussion around presidential race, and Trump and Hillary’s (-10.9) unfavorability): […] I do NOT want that woman as president, and I don’t know how else to say it.

I would rather have Gary Johnson, but he can’t win. I would rather have David Duke, but he’s not running. I mean, I would rather have anybody but her.

CO-HOST: ANDY PETH: (scoffing) David Duke!

MEURER: I’m serious! I would! I mean Louis Farakan could be president over Hillary Clinton And she is a criminal! I mean, he is more than twice – almost three times –.

PETH: You don’t cast your vote as a statement. You cast your vote as a number. Votes are strategic decisions to affect outcomes. [Listen below.]

Asked if he were joking about favoring Duke over Clinton, Meurer told me via email:

MEURER: If you ask me they’re both despicable human beings that are in favor of eugenics and are hardcore racists. One is out in the open with their hate (Duke) the other is as stealthy as possible (Clinton). Hilary is calculating and smart. Duke is not. Duke is less dangerous because he is so far over the top that he poses no threat to the minority population because he could never gain a following of any size, unlike Hilary who has millions behind her. Point being I can’t stand either one. But this whole question of choosing the lesser of two evils… I’m just glad I don’t have to make that choice.

“Yeah, that’s probably a good assessment, right now,” Woods replied, apparently forgetting that someday she may need the help of firefighters, first responders, military personnel, or countless other public servants who sacrifice their lives for ours.

The overall topic was asset forfeiture, and Woods was angry about its abuse by police. But does this mean the police act like Cripps and Bloods?

CALLER MIKE: Ok, so, Laura, these [police] are no different than the Bloods and the Crips that they’re constantly whining and crying about down in downtown Denver or Colorado Springs, or up in [Fort] Collins. I mean, how is law enforcement different from the people they’re fighting? I mean, if they can just take your stuff for no reason.

WOODS: Yeah, when they are taking stuff from innocent people with no conviction or no charges filed, they are no different.

CALLER MIKE: Yeah.

WOODS: Yeah.

I have my problems with asset forfeiture, which has resulted in unfair confiscation of property by police. But are the problems on par with what we see from Crips and Bloods.

The Crips are one of the largest and most violent associations of street gangs in the United States, with an estimated 30,000 to 35,000 members. It has been involved in murders, robberies and drug dealing, among other crimes.

There is no known national leader of the Bloods but individual Bloods sets have a hierarchical leadership structure with identifiable levels of membership. These levels of membership indicate status within a gang. A leader, typically an older member with a more extensive criminal background, runs each set. A set leader is not elected but rather asserts himself by developing and managing the gang’s criminal enterprises through his reputation for violence and ruthlessness and through his personal charisma. The majority of set members are called “soldiers”, who are typically between the ages of 16 and 22. Soldiers have a strong sense of commitment to their set and are extremely dangerous because of their willingness to use violence both to obtain the respect of gang members and to respond to any person who “disrespects” the set. “Associates” are not full members, but they identify with the gang and take part in various criminal activities.

Maybe you don’t like using Wikipedia as a source, but you get my point about Woods, who’s not returning my calls and whose fate in November’s race against Democrat Rachel Zenzinger will likely determine control of state government. (Republicans hold the state Senate by a one-seat margin.)

When an elected official, even one like Woods who likes Trump, compares police officers to Crips and Bloods, it shouldn’t fly under the media radar, like this May 26 statement of Woods did.

The Colorado Republican Party will post on its website the names of all the GOP activists who are running to be Colorado delegates at July’s Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

In a KLZ 560-AM interview last week, State GOP Chair Steve House said the list of candidates, which will appear on the website around Friday, will also include “whether they’re supporting someone [a prez candidate] or not.”

The public list could set off a furious effort among the remaining presidential candidates to either get their supporters elected as national delegates or win over the unbound candidates vying to be delegates to get their votes later.

“You will see in about a week from Friday all the candidates who have applied to be national delegates and whether they’re supporting someone or not,” said Steve House on air March 17. “That will be on our website.”

Colorado Republicans get 34 elected national-delegate spots. Three additional Colorado delegates are determined by the Republican National Committee. By rule, those three delegates are specificied to be the State GOP Chairman (House), the RNC Commmitteeman for Colorado (George Leing), and the RNC Committeewoman for Colorado (Lilly Nunez).

House said that even if one of the candidates arrives with a strong plurality of delegates, he wouldn’t feel obligated to push that candidate across the finish line solely by virtue of them coming the closest.

“I’m looking at whether the candidate is a conservative and whether they can win in November,” he said. “I’m voting for the candidate that meets that criteria, period.”

House also said he will likely only support a candidate who is still running for president, rather than a “white knight” candidate, like Mitt Romney or [Paul] Ryan, who could be put forward in later ballots.

House told the Hill he’s being heavily lobbied:

“I’ve received hundreds of emails, and I’m getting phone calls from people telling me who they think should be president and why,” said Steve House, the chairman of the Republican Party in Colorado and an unbound delegate.

Caller “David” told the world Friday, or at least the universe listening to Denver’s KLZ 560-AM, that “the only way that America can survive long term is to not have Islam within our borders.”

“If you have any amount of Islam, even if it’s 1 million or 2 million or 3 million, it will only grow because people are born into Islam, and they can’t leave Islam,” continued “David.” “There’s a death penalty for leaving Islam. So whether it takes 100 years or 500 years, eventually that number will grow big enough that they will just vote out the Constitution.” Listen to KLZ’s Dan Muerer here 3.11.16

KLZ’s afternoon host David Muerer didn’t vomit, gasp at this, or lose his voice, or anything.

“You know, that is really a possibility,” Muerer responded to “David” on air, “Because, you know, like others have said: you can’t beat a birthrate. And I just don’t think we’re converting them to our side good enough. David, I really appreciate the call. Thank you so much!”

When he responded to David, Muerer seemed to be hustling toward a commercial break, so I asked him if he really agreed with caller David’s bigotry.

“As far as the conversation with (Caller) David goes whether he’s a bigot or a man simply stating his fear I have no way of knowing. However, a good argument can be made for everything he is stating in his comments,” Muerer told me via email, inviting me to discuss the topic or any topic on his show.

Muerer went on in his email to partially contradict himself, saying there are “good patriotic American Muslims.” This despite the textbook bigoted believe that a certain religion should not be allowed in our country.

Muerer’s own inconsistency reflects what you find a lot on talk radio: bigotry manifested more as an amorphous reaction than a concrete thought. But the amorphous bigotry can be focused into a dangerous force by the right fascist.

In any case, here’s the rest of Muerer’s email to me:

“America can’t survive as the founders intended or even as we know it today if radical elements are successful. I do believe there are good patriotic American Muslims. In my opinion [American Islamic Forum for Democracy’s] Zuhdi Jasser is one of them. Do I agree with everything Mr. Jasser claims? No. Some, in my circles consider Mr. Jasser a threat. I do not. Am I against people from the Middle East? No. I have friends and acquaintances either from the Middle East or that is their heritage. I believe America has a unique culture that is worth preserving and defending. Am I against the theocracy of Islam as I am against Progressivism, Socialism, and Communism? Yes. I don’t want to see America go down the same path as Europe. Islam needs to be stopped before it gets a stronghold in the US.”

HOST DAN MUERER: Well, you know, and you’re right. George Bush started that lie that, you know, Islam is the religion of peace. It was an out-and-out lie. It is not a religion of peace. I tell you, it’s kind of –did you ever watch Star Trek? It’s kind of like the Borg. You know, we’re all peaceful as long as you become part of the Borg, you become part of the collective. Islam is the same way. You have to become part of the collective in order to be peaceful. And then, in reality –

CALLER DAVID: Eloi? E-L-O-I?

MUERER: Say that again.

CALLER DAVID: Eloi. There is there something called that in one of those science-fiction–. Somebody used to write about that, how those –.

MUERER: I’m not familiar with that.

CALLER DAVID: Yeah, Eloi. Yeah, they’re the people that just sort of like go along, like you say, like zombies, and that’s what the non-Muslims who are going along with the Muslim invasion of the West are. They just go along with the program and unfortunately they just don’t even have the sense to realize that it’s not them– it’s not this people living now, [they] are not the ones that are really going to suffer. It’s 50 years from now, when Islam has really taken hold and they’re going to look back at our generation, people who were alive during 9/11, and they are going to curse us to hell, if they have the sense even then to see what has happened to them and they’ll realize that we still had a chance to stop it. And we didn’t. Because everybody was afraid to be called a bad name.

MUERER: Well, you know, David, we’ve been trying to put out the warning here. I mean, we talk about what’s going on in Germany, —

CALLER DAVID: Oh, I know it!

MUERER: –about that even the road signs now are in both German and Arabic. Uh, you know, you see what’s going on France. You see sharia law zones in Great Britain. You see what’s happening in Dearborn, Michigan. You know, and for me, coming from Minneapolis — to see what’s happening in south Minneapolis, in the southern suburbs.

CALLER DAVID: Oh, yeah!

MUERER: It’s a cultural change. We reported earlier this week — or maybe it was last week – that, you know, there’s scheduled that 1600 of the Syrian refugees are due here in Denver. So, you know, it is a problem. And I really–.

CALLER DAVID: And, like one out of 1000 of them are Christian. It’s all Muslims they’re bringing in.

MUERER: No, none of these are Christians, as far as I know. These are all Islam – as a matter of fact, the Christians are having one heck of a time getting out of there. Our State Department is not letting the Christians in. I would say for every hundred thousand Islam or Muslims they let in, they might let in one Christian right now. Now, they may be opening that up a little bit because there’s been a lot of pressure applied, but in the middle of last year they were not allowing any of the Christians in the persecuted Christians into the United States.

CALLER DAVID: They – they — I mean, I don’t know – I’ll say it. I guess people can start mulling it over in their mind and coming to grips with it in their own way. But the only way that America can survive long term is to not have Islam within our borders. If you have any amount of Islam, even if it’s 1 million or 2 million or 3 million, it will only grow because people are born into Islam and they can’t leave Islam. There’s a death penalty for leaving Islam. So whether it takes 100 years or 500 years, eventually that number will grow big enough that they will just vote out the Constitution.

MUERER: That – you know, that is really a possibility because, you know, like others have said: you can’t beat a birthrate. And I just don’t think we’re converting them to our side good enough. David, I really appreciate the call. Thank you so much!

Steve House said the bill, which allows parents to attend a limited number of school functions, is unneeded because employers already treat their employees nicely.

House: The point you just brought up, one of the biggest problems we have as a Party is, we let the Democrats get away with the wrong premise — the premise in that case being that the average employer is not going to take care of their employees, or be flexible — like you just described– so therefore the government has to do it. That’s crazy. I’ve worked for a number of employers in my life. I’ve watched employers deal with the fact that an employee needed time to go to a school, or you know, to a meeting in the middle of the day. It doesn’t require government intervention unless your premise is all employers are too mean-spirited to do it, and that’s ridiculous!

KLZ 560-AM’s Steve Curtis didn’t ask Steve House, “What’s the big deal, if employers are so nice anyway. Why not have the law in place for the ones that are mean and greedy?’

Update (Dec. 11): In response to my question of whether he thinks there’s any difference between the Planned Parenthood domestic terrorist and Planned Parenthood executives, Klingenschmitt said via email, “I’ve been consistent in my statements calling for an end to ALL of the violence, not just half of the violence as the pro-abortionists do. They remain inconsistent in their calls to end some violence, while they engage in violent behavior against children behind closed doors.”

———————

“Listen, the shooter was filled with the demonic spirit of murder,” said State Rep. Gordon Klingenschmitt, a Republican, told Colorado Springs radio station KLZ 560-AM four days after the shooting (at 6:20 below). “And yet, the Planned Parenthood executives who call for not just the murder but the profiting from selling aborted baby parts, as we’ve seen from their own lips on the videos of the Center for Medical Progress over the summer, they have that same demonic spirit of murder.”

Klingenschmitt did not immediately return an email seeking to know if he sees any difference between Planned Parenthood executives and the domestic terrorist.

Other anti-choice leaders have responded to the tragedy by objecting to the abortions at Planned Parenthood as well as the murders committed by the terrorist, but Klingenschmitt went further Dec. 1 by equating Planned Parenthood officials to the terrorist.

For example, Personhood USA spokeswoman Jennifer Mason stated after the tragedy that her organization opposes all violence, including the shooting, but she criticized the media for “failing to report that innocent babies are killed in that very building every day that they are in business.”

Klingenschmitt was one of three Republicans, along with State Sen. Laura Woods (R-Westminster) and U.S. Senate candidate Tim Neville, whom pro-choice activists accused last week of inciting clinic violence through their use of “extreme” rhetoric. Klingenschmitt’s Dec. 2 comments mirror one of his quotes cited by activists as an example of the kind of language that

“Never have I called for violence. In fact, we abhor the actions of the violent shooter,” Klingenschmitt also said during the radio interview. (at 4:25 below).

“One of the reasons that President Obama was actually looking at and amenable and actually kind of agreeable to, if you will, Common Core was, that would be a way to influence and infiltrate and open up charter schools to able to have the Fethullah Gulen charter schools, which were bringing teachers over from Turkey,” said El Paso County Commissioner Peggy Littleton Monday on KLZ 560-AM.

Followers of the reclusive Gulen, many with Turkish ties, have opened charter schools worldwide over the past decade, including over 100 in the U.S. They focus on math and science, in keeping with Gulen’s notion that devout Muslims should not teach religion but science instead. “Studying physics, mathematics, and chemistry is worshipping God,” he sermonizes, according to a CBS investigation.

CBS discussed allegations that the Gulen schools are exploiting foreign-born teachers and the charter-school system for profit–and that the schools are secretly “promoting an Islamic agenda.”

CBS interviewed a teacher who claimed she was exploited, but CBS couldn’t confirm these accusations regarding Islam, reporting that “we looked into this and Islam is not taught at all.”

But Littleton implies that religious education is taking place at a Colorado charter school, which she allegedly visited, with ties to Gulen.

Littleton: “When I went in, it was apparent to me that the some of the pictures and things had been taken off in the walls. And they practiced, you know, some of the Muslim practices that are taught in the Koran, is what I observed when I was there.”

In March, Littleton told ThinkProgress that these charter schools teach students to “hate Americans.” This may or may not connect with her belief, expressed at a Alliance Defending Freedom Conference in July in Colorado Springs, that churches should prepare to “respond biblically” to disasters like “martial law.” Anyway, when I hear back from Littleton, I’ll ask her about this, too.

I asked a few of my progressive friends, who think conservative talk radio spreads the plague through the airwaves, whether they think the hosts fill air time by discussing whether they’d execute Obama.

Most said, yes, they could see talk radio hosts saying this.

But actually, I’d never heard a radio yapper say it, and I listen to a lot of talk radio.

That is, until it came from the mouth of KLZ 560-AM’s morning-show host Steve Curtis, a former chair of the Colorado Republican Party and death penalty advocate.

During a show earlier this year, he asked his co-hosts what they’d do with Obama, if they could “take over the government today.”

Curtis: I’d imprison him. I might execute him, if I were to take over the nation today. This is just, you know, one of the things I think about. What does this man deserve for the hatred, the bitterness, the division, the lack of strength with which he has led this country, the way that he has weakened our defenses, the way that he has excused the bad behavior of our enemies — and I mean the enemies of the country from both within and without?

I emailed Curtis, told him I was writing a blog post, and asked if he wanted “to explain or clarify your recent comment that you might execute Obama if you were in charge of the government?”

I was hoping he would say he was joking, but, instead I got:

“I think the statement and the question that follows stand on their own within the context in which they were made,” replied Curtis, and he invited me to talk about it on his show. I accepted this offer.

I can’t figure out what context Curtis is referring to, except the context that he actually thinks Obama might deserve execution.

You can read a transcript of the conversation for yourself below, and listen here:

HOST STEVE CURTIS: If you are able to take over the government today, what would you do with Obama? What would you– I mean, what would you do with him? Would you do anything? I’d imprison him. I might execute him, if I were to take over the nation today. This is just, you know, one of the things I think about. What does this man deserve for the hatred, the bitterness, the division, the lack of strength with which he has led this country, the way that he has weakened our defenses, the way that he has excused the bad behavior of our enemies — and I mean the enemies of the country from both within and without? What would you do with this guy? And then, what would you do with his administration? And what would you do with the Congress of the United States? I mean, if you if you could just wave your wand today, any ideas?

CO-HOST DAN MUERER: Well, I don’t know if I’d go as far as execution, but I’d sure – I’d like to throw them all in prison. I mean, or send him back to Kenya, or Indonesia. He’s not a traditional American. Not at all. He doesn’t have the point of view of a traditional American.

CURTIS: Well, I’m not sure that he’s an American.

MUERER: He’s – he’s –. [laughs] Well, –.

CURTIS: No, I’m serious.

MUERER: It’s true!

CO-HOST ANDY PETH: There’s only one reason I question him being an American citizen. Okay?

CURTIS: What’s that?

PETH: And I’m not a birther or any of this. Because he claims to be. I mean, this guy–he lies! Everything he says is a lie! And the simple fact that he claims to be an American citizen, that’s the only thing that actually makes me question if he is. Who seals their birth records? Who even does that? I mean, what, did he –

CURTIS: And college records and everything else. Yeah!

MUERER: They’re all sealed.

PETH: Yeah! Is he trying to cover up for a crime? Did he knock over a 7-Eleven on the day of his birth? I mean, what is he trying to cover up here? This is ridiculous. And do I know he wasn’t born [inaudible] I have no clue! I don’t care!

MUERER: Nobody knows.

PETH: But, I’m just like, the biggest liar I have ever seen in my life claims to be a U.S. citizen? That’s the only thing to make me question it.